PM Netanyahu accepts AG´s brief, based on Foreign Ministry stance
that nothing prevents Israel from returning South Sudanese migrants
to their new country if they are not eligible for asylum

About to be deported? Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein has presented
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a brief that says that Israel
can return illegal migrants from South Sudan to their country.

Weinstein met with Netanyahu on Wednesday evening and informed him
that the Attorney General´s Office would support the stance of the
Foreign Ministry, which seeks to deport the migrants now that South
Sudan has been declared an independent state.

The Foreign Ministry is seeking to deport migrants from South Sudan
who do not meet the criteria for asylum.

According to estimates from groups that assist asylum seekers and a
count that the community itself conducted, some 700 asylum seekers
from South Sudan currently live in Israel, including some 400
children. However, the Population Administration puts the number at
some 3,000.

The state attorney plans to ask the Jerusalem District Court to grant
an order that would forbid the detention or custody of refugees from
South Sudan, which is facing instability despite its newfound
independence.

The United Nations, on the other hand, believes that Israel should
hold off on deporting the South Sudanese migrants. During a Knesset
Committee debate on foreign workers, the UN Refugee Agency´s
representative in Israel said that the agency supported an extension
of the collective protection given to asylum seekers.

The South Sudanese themselves, as well as the various organizations
that provide aid to the community, also think that Israel should wait
before sending would-be refugees back to their country because of the
risk of war and the harsh living conditions there.

On Sunday, Netanyahu addressed the growing problem of illegal
migrants, saying that his government had taken a number of steps to
address the issue: "First of all, to stop them from coming in and
second of all to start sending them out," the prime minister said.

"We have 60,000 migrants – if we don´t stop the inflow we could
easily reach 600,000."

Netanyahu also cautioned against additional infiltrators entering
Israel via the Egyptian border. "This is flooding the state and
wiping out our identity as a Jewish, democratic state, so we´ve been
forced to set up a physical obstacle that will be completed by
October," he said.
Turning to the opposition to African migrants, especially in south
Tel Aviv, Netanyahu called the growing refugee population "a bother
to many residents, and rightfully so."